


Fleeting

by fairmanor



Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Angst, Episode: s06e08 The Presidential Suite, Fights, Fluff, Heartbreak, M/M, Making Up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:28:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26176477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairmanor/pseuds/fairmanor
Summary: Patrick and David need to talk after the spray tan incident. But first, something happens that puts their priorities into perspective.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose
Comments: 6
Kudos: 151





	Fleeting

**Author's Note:**

> \- Lol, sorry this is late and therefore not really part of the collection! But I was kicking myself for forgetting to uploading and well, better late than never.

Once Stevie finally leaves, a tense, heavy silence falls over the apartment. Patrick sits down forcefully on the sofa, hands clasped to his knees. He can feel his jaw twitching with anticipation of whatever is about to burst out of his mouth.

David is still stood up, looking at Patrick like he’d just found an unexploded bomb. Angry, irrational thoughts about how he felt like David was taking over their wedding planning and the difference between a wedding and a marriage and how this was about much more than a spray tan are swirling round in his head, so deafening that he barely hears David when he speaks up.

‘Okay, I’m just gonna go,’ David says in a small voice, gesturing towards the door with a thumb. ‘Because you have that look on your face like when you’re about to say something you’ll regret, and I don’t want that…for you.’

Patrick imagines saying any of the things he felt like saying to David, but every scenario ends with David either storming out, saying something _he_ regrets, or blowing it out of proportion and having a panic attack about Patrick not wanting to marry him anymore. Even visualising the latter makes Patrick feel sick with guilt. He definitely has a lot to say right now, but there’s also a lot he needs to sleep off. It’s their day off tomorrow. They can talk then.

‘Yeah, I think that’s for the best –’

Patrick is interrupted by the ringing of David’s phone. He picks up, offering a distracted ‘Yes?’ to the person down the line.

Then, ‘Alexis? What’s wrong?’

Patrick sits up. He unclenches his hands and tucks them under his thighs. Whenever David had a family crisis, he always rolled his eyes towards Patrick or brought a flat palm to his temple as he griped and argued down the phone. But this is different. David’s entire posture has gone limp with what appears to be a kind of grieving shock.

‘Oh, Lex,’ he whispers, his face crumpling.

 _Lex_ is how Patrick knows it must be bad. Without even thinking about their fight, Patrick reaches out for David’s hand. David clutches it immediately and folds himself into the couch, tears falling thick and fast. Patrick puts one hand on David’s knee and the other behind his neck, his chest aching at the sight of his fiancé. He imagines an alternate scenario in which he had actually said one of the things he’d wanted to say five minutes ago, and in doing so caused this exact reaction. Patrick holds on tighter.

‘Um, okay. Let me know when you’re back to the motel. I’ll be there soon.’ David looks at Patrick briefly, his eyes still brimming with tears.

‘I love you,’ David says, as though to both of them. He ends the call and stares into the fireplace.

‘Alexis and Ted broke up,’ he says hoarsely.

‘Oh my God,’ Patrick says, because he really can’t think of anything else to say. Weirdly, the first image of Alexis and Ted that springs to mind is of them in their harnesses and helmets on that dumb adventure trail that David had made him take. He thinks about them bringing Christmas cookies to the motel and laughing as they drunkenly stumble out of Patrick’s housewarming party and the way they jigsawed together in their own sweet, quirky, pun-making way, and his gut clenches with second-hand regret. The last time he’d seen Alexis she was gushing about something she wanted to do with Ted “in a couple of years”, and now it was all gone. Because things are fleeting. They’re fleeting and unpredictable and whole lifetimes, entire existences, can be had in three years. Because everything can be upended if fate decides she suddenly hates you. Because humans are small, and all they can really give and take is love.

He looks at David, who still seems to be processing the news with a look of pure, dejected empathy on his face. David, who’s fussy and pedantic and parading. David, who loves his sister enough to cry at grief that wasn’t his. David, with whom Patrick is going to spend the rest of his life even if David forced him to get married in a $2 million Indonesian spa retreat.

‘Actually, can you stay for a bit?’ Patrick whispers.

David meets Patrick’s gaze, his own thoughts catching up with Patrick’s. He clamps his lips together in an effort to not cry anew and nods.

‘Just for a bit. I want to be with Alexis tonight.’

‘We can still talk more tomorrow as well.’

David nods again as he draws Patrick into an embrace. ‘Mmhm. We can talk whenever you like. And Patrick, I love you. I love you and I’m sorry, I’m so sorry –’

Patrick shushes him, rubbing a hand down David’s back. ‘It’s okay. It’s okay, I love you too. We do need to talk, but we’re okay. We’ll always be okay.’


End file.
